A drawback of current electronic games and related entertainment is that they all have similar controller technology and use a flat screen technology for visual display. There is a strong market for entertainment having more advanced technological systems that provide new and more exciting forms of entertainment. Companies such as United Studios, Walt Disney World, and Six Flags continually work to create new games and entertainment experiences. Three dimensional (3D) amusement rides have become popular in amusement parks and 3D games are also popular since the introduction of 3D video displays.
U.S. Patent Application No. WO2009/011706 discloses a flexible emissive visual display screen that can display movies or still scenes. Because this screen is bendable it can be used to create an enhanced multi-dimensional audio-visual surround experience when positioned over multiple walls and/or ceilings so that the viewer feels immersed in the visual display. Because the screen is emissive it generates light rather than reflecting light. The screen can be manufactured as a continuous emissive display panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,224,382 discloses an immersive imaging system for the capture and display of high-resolution stereoscopic or monoscopic wide fields-of-view at still or video rates. Immersive imaging is defined as still or video images that provide a realistic or pseudo-realistic visual representation of an environment in such a way that the person viewing the images feels “immersed” in them (fully surrounded, as when immersed in water). With improvements in digital imaging components and processing speeds, there is increasing interest in immersive imaging because electronic and computer technologies can now support it. These immersive images are sometimes called wide-angle, panoramic, spherical or panospheric, based on the extent of viewing field that is shown.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,850,137 discloses a cost effective apparatus and method for levitating a diamagnetic material using a magnetic field produced by a superconducting magnet. The superconducting magnet includes a first superconducting coil having a central axis that produces a magnetic field when energized with current. A second superconducting coil is positioned concentrically within the first coil and has a central axis generally parallel to a central axis of the first coil. The second coil also produces a magnetic field when energized with current. A third superconducting coil is positioned concentrically within the second coil and has a central axis generally parallel to the central axes of the first and second coils. The third coil produces a magnetic field when energized with current and defines a bore of the magnet. The magnetic fields of the first, second and third coils combine to produce an operational magnetic field for levitating the diamagnetic material inside the bore.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,364 discloses a method and system for diamagnetic manipulation of an object in a surrounding medium in a low gravity environment. If the application requires directional manipulation of the object, at least one magnet or electromagnet is required. The object is repulsed by the magnet if the object is more strongly diamagnetic than the surrounding medium. If the object is less diamagnetic than the surrounding medium, however, then the object is effectively attracted to the magnet. For an application that requires suspension of the object, two oppositely polarized magnets are used to generate an appropriate magnetic field gradient to suspend the object in a location where opposing field vectors generated by the two magnets cancel each other out, producing a net field strength of zero.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,597,002 discloses a diamagnetic levitation system which combines the use of diamagnetic levitation and electrostatic actuators to create highly sensitive non-contact inertial sensing systems based on the magnetic levitation of a diamagnetic body. Several non-contact position sensors are placed on the diamagnetic body and on an array of magnets. The position information then can be used to maintain or move (by using non-contact electrostatic actuators) the diamagnetic object in the preferred direction.
Heretofore, it has not been possible to integrate the above technologies to convert a conventional 3D sitting or standing visual experience into a complete 3D visual experience using a spherical enclosure positioned in the center of a diamagnetic levitation system so that users in the sphere can float freely in space and participate in 3D video games associated with a spherical visual display on the inner surface of the sphere.